Rebels urged to join peace process

The mediation team involved in the Arusha peace process on Burundi on Thursday urged rebel groups to lay down their arms. “To the belligerents, I would like to make a special appeal that if the reason for taking to arms was the restoration of democracy, we are now on the way to achieving that, so it does not make any sense to ignore this development,” the independent Hirondelle news agency quoted the facilitator Nelson Mandela’s representative, Mark Bomani, as saying. Bomani was speaking at the close of the latest round of peace talks in Arusha. “If they [the armed rebel groups] have doubts on whether the agreement reached here will be honoured, I think the answer is that the agreement will stick,” Bomani said. The Hutu rebel Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces de defense pour la democratie (CNDD-FDD) have not been part of the formal peace process, and did not sign the country’s 28 August peace and reconciliation agreement in Arusha.

Bomani assured the delegates that the facilitator, Nelson Mandela, would always be ready to intervene in the Burundi peace talks “should any misunderstanding arise” or if any parties should try to renege from the agreement. He reminded them the region had also accepted the role of a guarantor of the agreement, while the international community would not stand by idly should the good work that has been done be threatened. “I don’t see how any one, or any one party, would attempt to challenge the accord against all these odds... I would therefore appeal to the belligerents to seriously consider laying down their arms and join the process,” Bomani said. While the talks continued, the facilitator was still working “very hard” to obtain a ceasefire, he added.